86 MELODRAMA AND TRAGEDY 
proverbial predilection by coming back* Next day 
the nest was empty, and two somewhat uneasy Song 
Sparrows in an adjacent Willow seemed to be consider- 
ing ways and means for a new domestic venture* The 
ways of feathered life are strange and often mysterious* 
With ample precautions against the blending of ob- 
servation and imagination much may be discovered 
and disclosed to strengthen human sympathetic 
interest* The unfolding of a strange family history 
may be cut short by the depredations of a feline 
enemy* The little glimpse of a life under peculiar 
circumstances, mysterious in origin and uncertain 
in its untimely end, seems a reflection of the calls 
that come down out of the night from passing 
strangers as they follow their mysterious courses from 
zone to zone* 
